The northeast was under a blanket of snow on December 18, 2020. The FDA authorized emergency use of the COVID vaccine manufactured by Moderna. Vice President Pence, wearing a gray, starched short-sleeve shirt and a black mask, received his COVID shot on national television and declared, “I didn’t feel a thing.” More than 880,000 Americans filed new unemployment claims for the week.
I hope to god that Merrick Garland will have enough balls to do this.
Trump is a criminal, he tried to overthrow the election to stay in power, and everyone connected to that should be prosecuted and put in jail for a very long time.
Because if he does not, our experiment will have failed.
Then that will be the start of the next revolution when all the good Americans leave the US for a more democratic society.
It's looking worse and worse every day. No Republican dare speak up right now because they all know they were in on it, by one way or another. They're all hiding somewhere.
I despise Trump with a passion and I hope he has a long and lingering disease to die from.
It would only serve him right. He's poisoned our country forever.
The Republicans and the Uvalde police. They stood by and only because they have been called to account, have they spoken about what really happened. They would still be standing by their rationalizations and/ or silent….allowing murderous violence to go on. These men are pathetic. But they have their guns
we were just a paper thickness from losing our democracy. and likely, sinking in anarchy. if guiliani and powell were any less incompetent they might have already drawn up papers for trump to sign, making powell officially special counsel.
military were perhaps waiting for word from flynn to go seize voting machines under powell's orders.
Civil war. Millions of us would not have stood for this. Gandhi-level civil disobedience should be the rule of the day when they try this again. Everyone stay home; buy nothing; do not work; do not pay taxes; if you do anything, physically block the road network in and out of major cities and federal hubs like DC. Take a lesson from the French and their protests, they shut down entire cities at a day's notice. A Million Man (and WOMAN) March on DC could throw the traitors OUT.
There was a Million Women walking in major cities, wearing pink hats. Nada. Bupkis. The RNC is a crime syndicate and they still hold power, even as they subvert the democracy.
Advice from Trump's consigliere Roy Cohn sure came in handy. He advised his client to deny, deny, deny and then attack. Pure Trumpisms now. More important are Cohn's words that followed Trump in lawsuit after lawsuit, right up until the bigtime insurrection: "No matter what happens," Cohn said, "always declare victory."
Of all people who should not want their names and faces associated with a president who behaves like a mob boss, 'Pat' Cipollone (whose birth name is Pasquale) should be sensitive to the ethnic connotations that 'gangster' and 'mob boss' reflect on his Italian heritage. It doesn't help that Donald Trump's consiglieri is none other than Rudolph Giuliani, former United States Attorney for the S.D.N.Y., but whose persona and behavior evenly match the mob bosses whom he routinely prosecuted and sent to jail. Mr. Cipollone comes across in his witness testimony as an honest lawyer representing a dishonest client, and any of us who practiced law for any length of time understand the feeling of helplessness and ineffectiveness when confronted by a client's repeated acts of wrongdoing. As former federal prosecutor Chuck Rosenberg said on MSNBC yesterday, and presenting witnesses at trials in which the witnesses themselves were often complicit in the crimes about which they were testifying, if all the witnesses he presented were nuns or librarians, he wouldn't have to explain to trial juries why they should believe the testimony of a self-acknowledged criminal who is in court specifically to testify against his co-conspirator buddies, including the Boss who was head of the whole shebang. Ordinarily, a lawyer like Mr. Cipollone would not have to make excuses for the fact that he represents a criminal, in this case the President of the United States. That's what the law requires, because by constitutional mandate, the courts have determined that defendants who are put in the position of having to defend themselves in a criminal trial are placed at an intolerable disadvantage, and it behooves the legal system itself to insist that criminal defendants are entitled to competent counsel at trial. Our legal system is built on the premise that the fairness of a proceeding requires competent advocates on both sides of the table.
That said, it begs the question to ask why Mr. Cipollone stuck around as long as he did as White House Counsel. In all fairness, the job description of counselor to the president is essentially a civil service position in which the incumbent lawyer represents the Office of the President, and the presidency itself is the client for assuring that the president is fully able to 'faithfully execute the laws' of the United States on behalf of the American people. On the other hand, in the case of Donald Trump, Mr. Cipollone was obligated to embody the heart and soul of a biblical prophet, warning the president and his staff of the ill wind that was blowing through their office, and how no good can come from their presence there, only to be ignored or ridiculed. I had observed Mr. Cipollini's behavior during the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump; and this time, it was as if somebody had nudged him in advance of his testimony, and whispered in his ear that his testimony would in effect be an occasion for expiation and catharsis for himself, and those other members of the Trump White House staff who had struggled with dealing with an out-of-control president bent on destroying the office of the presidency as we know it. As an acknowledged conservative, Mr. Cipollone now had the privilege and good fortune of representing his true client, the institutional government of the United States, and the people of the United States, as fully and wholeheartedly as he would have done for a private client who had been grievously wronged by, say, a vengeful mob boss who sneered at the law and those who abided by it. That puts Mr. Cipollini's hearing testimony into an entirely different light. He now comes across as someone with a deeply felt sense of obligation to protect the Office of the President, and by extension the American people, from the predations of President Trump and his allies. I could easily understand how Mr. Cipollone might dread coming to the office each morning to find some new, unheralded disaster landing on his desk, and trying to figure out a lawful way to handle the matter, while at the same time attempting to reign in the president and the crazies around him. In a minor sort of way, I occupied a position similar to that of Mr. Cipollone, when I was the Regional Counsel for the federal mass transit administration in Boston some forty years ago. I was fortunate in having a boss who wanted good legal advice, and colleagues in my Washington headquarters who were confident that I would provide the best legal advice available in furtherance of my agency's statutory mission. Mr. Cipollone was not so fortunate; and watching him and listening to his testimony, it seemed to me that having the opportunity to testify gave him relief from the accumulating burden of knowledge that being in the room with Donald Trump on a day-to-day basis had imposed upon him. I give the man a great deal of credit for his ability to endure the unendurable. I can easily imagine Mr. Cipollone heading home at night with a migraine headache, the intensity of which could only be imagined. As everyone who was testified about working for Donald Trump has said, the job destroyed their soul. I have no doubt that Mr. Cipollini's soul is indeed in need of repair; and his performance yesterday probably helped in the healing substantially.
What is interesting is that no one thought to stop this thing in December, to hold a news conference on TV or call a meeting of top media to explain the madness going on at the White House. What is tragic is that everyone including the president knew by 15 November that the election was lost. Imagine someone having the guts to take the president into a room and make him an offer he couldn't refuse, "Shut up, or else!" It is obvious that adults caved into Mr. Trumps hysteria and allowed it oxygen far too long. Barr, Meadows and Giuliani, once seen as serious officials serving the country, ended up serving a desperate former TV personality in a psychotic drama. Prosecuting them risks a prolonged national farce, perhaps what is better is a detailed account of what happened and allow history to judge these crazies accordingly.
It isn’t actually interesting, Audiea, it’s criminal that those staff members kept their mouths shut until the 1/6 committee started producing hardcore evidence. Cippolone stayed quiet and reluctant until last week’s deposition. I honestly pray that justice prevails for all of us Americans.
Great summary, Lucian. Cheney gave us a hint at the end of the hearing that there's a new witness who had not been seen on any of the videos. We will be privy to that witness next week. I can’t wait!
Another day, another ton of after the fact evidence and first person testimony we can oh so close to a coup. But, allow me to give you one person's limited takeaway from yesterday and the aftermath of way too much instant analysis by some of the many talking heads employed by MSNBC.
First, if yesterday's evidence is not enough I do not know what it is going to take to make Trump Target #! but, IMHO, just as importantly one Michael Flynn as Target #2 in charges of seditious 1conspiracy and conspiracy to interfere with Federal elections. The , as one analyst aptly named it, The Star Wars Bar Scene, meeting was chock full of crazy being held back by two or three lawyers who had been loyal to Trump for years but who themselves finally concluded he was not just being given "bad advice" but was smack dab in the middle of a conspiracy to overturn an election. So , they held the line but as Lucien's retelling shows not before Trump did not try one last Hail Sydney to begin implementing a coup.
My second takeaway is IMHO Trump is no longer the biggest villain in what was being attempted. That honor (?) must now fall to one Michael Flynn who in spite of his education at taxpayer expense at the Academy and a cushy pension at my and other taxpayer expense was bat crap crazy enough to not just openly disobey his Oath to the Constitution, he openly was pushing for a Seven Days in May coup where the military would seize voting machines and assist in giving Trump a second term with the aid and comfort of the likes of Gym Jordan, Mo Brooks and Louie Gohmert. Flynn is a disgrace to his uniform and his Oath and the only just sentence for him would end at a wall with a firing squad.
Finally, let me express more than a great deal of dissatisfaction with many of the well paid "MSNBC contributors" whose previous paying jobs were at the FBI or DOJ. Almost all of them continue to advise "we are close but not there yet in having all the proof needed to convict Donald Trump.' Want to know why DOJ is so ineffective in pursuing just about any kind of criminal activity? Here it is. A cadre of lawyers conditioned NEVER to bring a case unless they and their bosses are 110% sure they can find a pristine jury and get a conviction to insure they keep their jobs. Bureaucratic gridlock on steroids.
Great Tick Tock, Lucien. But, unless Merrick Garland and his team grow a pair very quickly, we are going to see all of the work of this committee go to waste. And, Michael Flynn will still be living large off my dime.
If none of this had happened and Trump had gracefully conceded his loss and had welcomed the new president to the White House like every other president and you had read this in a work of fiction you'd think the author had a very wild imagination and considered the story really far fetched, that nothing remotely like it could ever happen in real life.
Terrific recap. Thank you!!! Latest J6 episode was incredible. Felt the chill of evil for the first time today. Knew it was bad, but not this bad. Waiting for Garland. I predict we’ll have spontaneous dancing in the streets, if he actually acts. Holding my breath. ❤️🤍💙
The Jan 6 committee has masterfully shown incontrovertible evidence that the mobster monster fomented the insurrection and conspired to overturn the election in multiple other ways.
And Sidney Powell comes off on video as exactly the loon we all thought she was.
What are the options now?
1. Don't indict (out of fear of losing, fear of sparking a civil war, respect for the presidency, whatever): This sends a clear message to future wannabe fascist tyrants that everything unpunished is permissible.
2. Indict and lose in court: Pretty sure that will be the political end of the orange stain on our country, even though he will declare "victory." Still leaves an opening for smarter versions of TFG. But forewarned is forearmed. It will get ugly.
3. Indict and win. The outcome we all hope and pray for.
I'm in the camp that believes Garland is closing in on the monster mobster. Look for indictments of the next tier (Giuliani, Powell, Flynn, Bannon, Stone) first.
Lucian, you are an excellent journalist and it's not just style, it's hard work and discipline. This piece pulls random facts from the daily grind and puts them together for us in a coherent picture. Your evidence-based reporting separates this piece from breathless diatribes I read elsewhere that, while I may agree with their sentiment, are devoid of facts, just empty calories. Thank you for doing the hard work so I don't have to.
I hope to god that Merrick Garland will have enough balls to do this.
Trump is a criminal, he tried to overthrow the election to stay in power, and everyone connected to that should be prosecuted and put in jail for a very long time.
Because if he does not, our experiment will have failed.
Then that will be the start of the next revolution when all the good Americans leave the US for a more democratic society.
It's looking worse and worse every day. No Republican dare speak up right now because they all know they were in on it, by one way or another. They're all hiding somewhere.
I despise Trump with a passion and I hope he has a long and lingering disease to die from.
It would only serve him right. He's poisoned our country forever.
The Republicans and the Uvalde police. They stood by and only because they have been called to account, have they spoken about what really happened. They would still be standing by their rationalizations and/ or silent….allowing murderous violence to go on. These men are pathetic. But they have their guns
I wish Trump a long life--behind bars--and all his co-conspirators too.
I prefer the Mussolini hanging by the feet look!
My thoughts exactly, Mary. Prosecute each & every one of them.
we came so close.
we were just a paper thickness from losing our democracy. and likely, sinking in anarchy. if guiliani and powell were any less incompetent they might have already drawn up papers for trump to sign, making powell officially special counsel.
military were perhaps waiting for word from flynn to go seize voting machines under powell's orders.
so close.
Civil war. Millions of us would not have stood for this. Gandhi-level civil disobedience should be the rule of the day when they try this again. Everyone stay home; buy nothing; do not work; do not pay taxes; if you do anything, physically block the road network in and out of major cities and federal hubs like DC. Take a lesson from the French and their protests, they shut down entire cities at a day's notice. A Million Man (and WOMAN) March on DC could throw the traitors OUT.
There was a Million Women walking in major cities, wearing pink hats. Nada. Bupkis. The RNC is a crime syndicate and they still hold power, even as they subvert the democracy.
Advice from Trump's consigliere Roy Cohn sure came in handy. He advised his client to deny, deny, deny and then attack. Pure Trumpisms now. More important are Cohn's words that followed Trump in lawsuit after lawsuit, right up until the bigtime insurrection: "No matter what happens," Cohn said, "always declare victory."
Of all people who should not want their names and faces associated with a president who behaves like a mob boss, 'Pat' Cipollone (whose birth name is Pasquale) should be sensitive to the ethnic connotations that 'gangster' and 'mob boss' reflect on his Italian heritage. It doesn't help that Donald Trump's consiglieri is none other than Rudolph Giuliani, former United States Attorney for the S.D.N.Y., but whose persona and behavior evenly match the mob bosses whom he routinely prosecuted and sent to jail. Mr. Cipollone comes across in his witness testimony as an honest lawyer representing a dishonest client, and any of us who practiced law for any length of time understand the feeling of helplessness and ineffectiveness when confronted by a client's repeated acts of wrongdoing. As former federal prosecutor Chuck Rosenberg said on MSNBC yesterday, and presenting witnesses at trials in which the witnesses themselves were often complicit in the crimes about which they were testifying, if all the witnesses he presented were nuns or librarians, he wouldn't have to explain to trial juries why they should believe the testimony of a self-acknowledged criminal who is in court specifically to testify against his co-conspirator buddies, including the Boss who was head of the whole shebang. Ordinarily, a lawyer like Mr. Cipollone would not have to make excuses for the fact that he represents a criminal, in this case the President of the United States. That's what the law requires, because by constitutional mandate, the courts have determined that defendants who are put in the position of having to defend themselves in a criminal trial are placed at an intolerable disadvantage, and it behooves the legal system itself to insist that criminal defendants are entitled to competent counsel at trial. Our legal system is built on the premise that the fairness of a proceeding requires competent advocates on both sides of the table.
That said, it begs the question to ask why Mr. Cipollone stuck around as long as he did as White House Counsel. In all fairness, the job description of counselor to the president is essentially a civil service position in which the incumbent lawyer represents the Office of the President, and the presidency itself is the client for assuring that the president is fully able to 'faithfully execute the laws' of the United States on behalf of the American people. On the other hand, in the case of Donald Trump, Mr. Cipollone was obligated to embody the heart and soul of a biblical prophet, warning the president and his staff of the ill wind that was blowing through their office, and how no good can come from their presence there, only to be ignored or ridiculed. I had observed Mr. Cipollini's behavior during the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump; and this time, it was as if somebody had nudged him in advance of his testimony, and whispered in his ear that his testimony would in effect be an occasion for expiation and catharsis for himself, and those other members of the Trump White House staff who had struggled with dealing with an out-of-control president bent on destroying the office of the presidency as we know it. As an acknowledged conservative, Mr. Cipollone now had the privilege and good fortune of representing his true client, the institutional government of the United States, and the people of the United States, as fully and wholeheartedly as he would have done for a private client who had been grievously wronged by, say, a vengeful mob boss who sneered at the law and those who abided by it. That puts Mr. Cipollini's hearing testimony into an entirely different light. He now comes across as someone with a deeply felt sense of obligation to protect the Office of the President, and by extension the American people, from the predations of President Trump and his allies. I could easily understand how Mr. Cipollone might dread coming to the office each morning to find some new, unheralded disaster landing on his desk, and trying to figure out a lawful way to handle the matter, while at the same time attempting to reign in the president and the crazies around him. In a minor sort of way, I occupied a position similar to that of Mr. Cipollone, when I was the Regional Counsel for the federal mass transit administration in Boston some forty years ago. I was fortunate in having a boss who wanted good legal advice, and colleagues in my Washington headquarters who were confident that I would provide the best legal advice available in furtherance of my agency's statutory mission. Mr. Cipollone was not so fortunate; and watching him and listening to his testimony, it seemed to me that having the opportunity to testify gave him relief from the accumulating burden of knowledge that being in the room with Donald Trump on a day-to-day basis had imposed upon him. I give the man a great deal of credit for his ability to endure the unendurable. I can easily imagine Mr. Cipollone heading home at night with a migraine headache, the intensity of which could only be imagined. As everyone who was testified about working for Donald Trump has said, the job destroyed their soul. I have no doubt that Mr. Cipollini's soul is indeed in need of repair; and his performance yesterday probably helped in the healing substantially.
What is interesting is that no one thought to stop this thing in December, to hold a news conference on TV or call a meeting of top media to explain the madness going on at the White House. What is tragic is that everyone including the president knew by 15 November that the election was lost. Imagine someone having the guts to take the president into a room and make him an offer he couldn't refuse, "Shut up, or else!" It is obvious that adults caved into Mr. Trumps hysteria and allowed it oxygen far too long. Barr, Meadows and Giuliani, once seen as serious officials serving the country, ended up serving a desperate former TV personality in a psychotic drama. Prosecuting them risks a prolonged national farce, perhaps what is better is a detailed account of what happened and allow history to judge these crazies accordingly.
It isn’t actually interesting, Audiea, it’s criminal that those staff members kept their mouths shut until the 1/6 committee started producing hardcore evidence. Cippolone stayed quiet and reluctant until last week’s deposition. I honestly pray that justice prevails for all of us Americans.
From your PC, Lucian, to AG Garland’s eyes. Paraphrasing that message that was sent by Nimitz to Halsey, where are you? All the world wonders...
Milford PA.
To this point I have no confidence in Garland. I want to feel differently but I just don’t see it happening. I want to be pleasantly surprised.
Best column ever
Great summary, Lucian. Cheney gave us a hint at the end of the hearing that there's a new witness who had not been seen on any of the videos. We will be privy to that witness next week. I can’t wait!
Ok , l read today’s commentary. Yes, it has the smell of a mafia social club, but it’s Our House.
Our House, and it’s a mess.
Where’s the plumber when we need them? Really, the plumbers? I’m having a flashback, guys, and it’s not looking good.
Another day, another ton of after the fact evidence and first person testimony we can oh so close to a coup. But, allow me to give you one person's limited takeaway from yesterday and the aftermath of way too much instant analysis by some of the many talking heads employed by MSNBC.
First, if yesterday's evidence is not enough I do not know what it is going to take to make Trump Target #! but, IMHO, just as importantly one Michael Flynn as Target #2 in charges of seditious 1conspiracy and conspiracy to interfere with Federal elections. The , as one analyst aptly named it, The Star Wars Bar Scene, meeting was chock full of crazy being held back by two or three lawyers who had been loyal to Trump for years but who themselves finally concluded he was not just being given "bad advice" but was smack dab in the middle of a conspiracy to overturn an election. So , they held the line but as Lucien's retelling shows not before Trump did not try one last Hail Sydney to begin implementing a coup.
My second takeaway is IMHO Trump is no longer the biggest villain in what was being attempted. That honor (?) must now fall to one Michael Flynn who in spite of his education at taxpayer expense at the Academy and a cushy pension at my and other taxpayer expense was bat crap crazy enough to not just openly disobey his Oath to the Constitution, he openly was pushing for a Seven Days in May coup where the military would seize voting machines and assist in giving Trump a second term with the aid and comfort of the likes of Gym Jordan, Mo Brooks and Louie Gohmert. Flynn is a disgrace to his uniform and his Oath and the only just sentence for him would end at a wall with a firing squad.
Finally, let me express more than a great deal of dissatisfaction with many of the well paid "MSNBC contributors" whose previous paying jobs were at the FBI or DOJ. Almost all of them continue to advise "we are close but not there yet in having all the proof needed to convict Donald Trump.' Want to know why DOJ is so ineffective in pursuing just about any kind of criminal activity? Here it is. A cadre of lawyers conditioned NEVER to bring a case unless they and their bosses are 110% sure they can find a pristine jury and get a conviction to insure they keep their jobs. Bureaucratic gridlock on steroids.
Great Tick Tock, Lucien. But, unless Merrick Garland and his team grow a pair very quickly, we are going to see all of the work of this committee go to waste. And, Michael Flynn will still be living large off my dime.
Try Flynn, cancel his retirement $$$.
A lesson to all who attempt such a stunt in the future.
If none of this had happened and Trump had gracefully conceded his loss and had welcomed the new president to the White House like every other president and you had read this in a work of fiction you'd think the author had a very wild imagination and considered the story really far fetched, that nothing remotely like it could ever happen in real life.
Terrific recap. Thank you!!! Latest J6 episode was incredible. Felt the chill of evil for the first time today. Knew it was bad, but not this bad. Waiting for Garland. I predict we’ll have spontaneous dancing in the streets, if he actually acts. Holding my breath. ❤️🤍💙
Orange jumpsuits for all!
Thank you, Lucian.
The Jan 6 committee has masterfully shown incontrovertible evidence that the mobster monster fomented the insurrection and conspired to overturn the election in multiple other ways.
And Sidney Powell comes off on video as exactly the loon we all thought she was.
What are the options now?
1. Don't indict (out of fear of losing, fear of sparking a civil war, respect for the presidency, whatever): This sends a clear message to future wannabe fascist tyrants that everything unpunished is permissible.
2. Indict and lose in court: Pretty sure that will be the political end of the orange stain on our country, even though he will declare "victory." Still leaves an opening for smarter versions of TFG. But forewarned is forearmed. It will get ugly.
3. Indict and win. The outcome we all hope and pray for.
I'm in the camp that believes Garland is closing in on the monster mobster. Look for indictments of the next tier (Giuliani, Powell, Flynn, Bannon, Stone) first.
Lucian, you are an excellent journalist and it's not just style, it's hard work and discipline. This piece pulls random facts from the daily grind and puts them together for us in a coherent picture. Your evidence-based reporting separates this piece from breathless diatribes I read elsewhere that, while I may agree with their sentiment, are devoid of facts, just empty calories. Thank you for doing the hard work so I don't have to.
‘Connecting the dots should take us to the very root of the infection.
‘Problem is there’s a lot of dots and the roots go really deep.
‘He’s just the head of the boil.